Ballester Molina Inunangitsoq revolver

The Ballester Molina Inunangitsoq revolver is a compact handgun manufactured in Nuuk under an Argentine license. In Smilla’s hands, it becomes first a concealed means of confronting Maurice, then a weapon that fails because its safety catch is still on, and later a tool she entrusts to Urs during the danger posed by Hansen. Its changing uses make the gun more than a symbol: its design, loaded cylinder, and overlooked safety directly shape what happens.

Design and Purpose

Smilla identifies the revolver by its full name and notes the discrepancy between its purpose and its design. The judgment arises from its physical form: unlike a hunting rifle, this is a snub-nosed weapon, and she sees no comparable practical excuse for it. Her reflection that evil can assume a simple form follows the recognition of an ordinary, compact object whose intended violence needs no elaborate appearance.

She distinguishes it from firearms used in hunting. In certain snow conditions, she explains, a long-barreled, large-caliber revolver may be needed for self-defense: musk oxen or polar bears can circle behind a hunter so quickly that there is no time to turn a rifle around. That account does not justify this particular gun. The contrast sets a concrete survival use against a weapon whose short barrel and ammunition point, in Smilla’s assessment, toward a different kind of violence.

Smilla Finds and Loads It

The revolver appears with Jakkelsen’s key, a blue plastic container, and a piece of metal wrapped in cloth, all lying inside the cushion Smilla is using as a pillow. She had expected the mechanic to notice that the items were missing, but he has not returned. The gun is therefore part of a concealed cache, not an object openly offered to her or present as a routine tool.

Smilla examines its ammunition: the bullets have flat-tipped lead jackets, and the box is full. She loads the cylinder, which holds six rounds, and snaps it into place. The small sequence turns an inert object into an immediate threat; the full box and six-shot capacity give the confrontation a definite, physical readiness. Yet the weapon’s apparent preparedness will prove incomplete.

The Failed Threat

Smilla stages the confrontation by producing a rattling cough and kicking the remaining glass shards in the cupboard door. When Maurice comes in, she holds the revolver with both hands, leans against the table, and orders him to his knees. He moves toward her. She aims downward at his legs and pulls the trigger, but nothing happens: she has forgotten to release the safety catch.

The failure reverses the scene’s balance of force. Maurice strikes her in the chest and throws her against the cupboard; glass from the broken window cuts into her back. He kicks her in the face, breaking her nose and briefly knocking her unconscious. When she comes to, she uses scalpels concealed in her work-clothes tool pouch to sever his Achilles’ tendon. The revolver has not protected her or stopped his advance; its safety, overlooked in the moment of danger, helps expose the gap between possessing a weapon and being able to use it.

A Second Use

Later, when a woman reaches for Smilla, Urs intervenes with a freshly baked loaf of bread, pressing it to the woman’s throat until she falls onto the rubber raft. Smilla then hands him the mechanic’s revolver and asks him to buy her some time. Looking toward Hansen, Urs answers that it will be no problem. The gun has changed hands and purpose: after failing as Smilla’s direct threat against Maurice, it becomes part of the means by which she seeks time to act in the continuing danger.

The revolver’s appearances remain tied to circumstances rather than to any claim that a weapon guarantees control. Smilla’s loading of all six chambers cannot prevent her first shot from failing, while the later handoff depends on Urs’s willingness to help. Across both scenes, the object’s capacity for violence is real, but its effects are contingent on its handling, its mechanical state, and the people who act around it.